We don’t know what the real story is in this report from SF Gate, “Calif. town pauses housing project after French Laundry chef criticism.” But if you had to pick a single story that captures a century of Euclidean vibe, where “neighborhood character” objections (first affirmed in that case) can kill what might be a good thing because neighbors can anonymously vote how someone uses their own property, you couldn’t do better than this one.
Continue Reading Euclid’s “Neighborhood Character” Vibe, Exemplified In Land Use Fight In The Heart Of The Napa Valley
One City, Many Votes: Cal App OK’s Municipal Sleight-of-Law To Permit City To Impose Fees… On Itself (And Others)
The above is the image Skynet returned when we
asked for a graphic for this post
The California Court of Appeal’s recent opinion in Dessins LLC v. City of Sacramento, No. C100644 (July 9, 2025) doesn’t deal with eminent domain or takings, but is about municipal fees and the way California requires these things
County: We’re Short Of Housing, So Let’s Do Rent Control! Court: Not So Fast.
Florida law makes it really difficult for municipalities to adopt rent controls. State statutes and the Florida Constitution erect all sorts of substantive and procedural hurdles that must be crossed. For example, a statute requires findings that any such measures are responding to an emergency, a “grave … menace to the general public,” and places
What Is A Kelo Reference Doing In An Opinion About Elections And Municipal Home Rule?
Come at me!
(Bolick, J., dissenting)
We have a Wexis alert for “Kelo,” because that’s one of the ways we keep up on the latest developments in this area. That alert doesn’t ping all that often, so we were all excited when yesterday, we received an alert notifying us of the Arizona Supreme
Mass App: “Grandfathering” Is Term We’re Not Going To Use Because “it has racist origins”
Nothing much to see in the Massachusetts Court of Appeals’ opinion in Comstock v. Zoning Board of Appeals of Gloucester, No. 19-P-1163 (Aug. 3, 2020), a somewhat typical zoning dispute.
Neighbor vs neighbor, over whether permits issued by a municipality (and approved by the ZBA) to renovate and replace an existing — but dilapidated
Why Eminent Domain Lawyers Should Read The Supreme Court’s Census Case
Eminent domain lawyers know that even though the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against the property owner in Kelo, it acknowledged that there was a (slight?) hope in some cases where the condemnor’s stated public use or purposes is actually “pretext” to private benefit.
Pretext may be present in at least three situations: (1) when eminent
Monday Reading: Pirates (Twice), Monet Land Use Pilgrimage
Here’s what we’re reading today:
- It isn’t just us: “Kansas justice invokes ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ in legal dissent.” You know what they’re talking about (“more like what you’d call ‘guidelines’ than actual rules”). We’ve done it too. Now you can cite it in your next brief. From the Wichita Eagle.
Hawaii Supreme Court: Election Law Appeal Timely Brought When Mailed
Here’s the latest in a case we’ve been following (because we represent the Petitioner), an election law case about the timing of appeals in challenges to a voter’s registration.
In Hyland v. Gonzales, No. SCWC-15-0000053 (Mar. 2, 2017), the unanimous court held that the appellant timely “brought” his appeal to the Hawaii County Board
Hawaii Supreme Court Oral Arguments: When Is Election Law Admin Appeal “Brought?”
Here’s the recording of Hawaii Supreme Court oral arguments from last month in a case we first were following, and then later became involved in as counsel.
As we previewed here, the question which the court is reviewing is whether an appeal in a voter registration challenge case is timely brought when
Upcoming Election Law Hawaii Supreme Court Argument Preview: When Is A Registration Challenge “Brought?”
Our colleague Rebecca Copeland has posted a preview and the briefs in an election law case we’re arguing next week in the Hawaii Supreme Court. See “Writ to Watch: Hyland v. Gonzales.” We’ve written about the case earlier here and here.
The question for the court’s review is whether an appeal in